


Amplexus

by newsbypostcard



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: First five-year mission, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 22:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newsbypostcard/pseuds/newsbypostcard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard's secret injury is drawing attention from Uhura, who confronts him about it -- and then uses the sort of insidious language that reminds him that she has so much blackmail material on him at this point that it's practically criminal.</p><p>
  <em>Leonard stared at her. “Get out of my sickbay.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Uhura grinned widely and backed slowly away from him. “You can’t afford to have a secret injury in this job, Leonard. You’d kill Jim if it was him. That means you need to fix it, okay? Find a way. I believe in you.”</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amplexus

**Author's Note:**

> I'd be lying if I pretended this wasn't for Alice.
> 
> I may or may not have experienced a similar injury recently (i mean BASEBALL. I WAS PLAYING BASEBALL. I RAN INTO A CAR PLAYING BASEBALL. I BEAT UP A MUGGER WHO WAS STEALING A CAR WHILE PLAYING BASEBALL), so don't come into my inbox telling me this premise is unrealistic. These injuries are REAL and they are SERIOUS and we should all take them VERY SERIOUSLY, JIM, I MEAN IT.

  
  


It just _had_ to have been Uhura who heard it, didn’t it.

She turned quickly around and looked at Leonard with suspicion. “Are you hurt?” she asked, squinting at him scrutinously.

“No.”

“I heard you wince.”

“I didn’t _wince_.”

“You audibly -- oh, for crying out loud.” Uhura clicked her tongue and pulled Leo back by the arm, ignoring his objections and batting the hand with the PADD away as she set her hands on either side of his ribcage.

Despite himself, he flinched at her touch, then growled deep in his throat at the intrusion. Uhura remained unaffected. 

“You’re _injured_ ,” she accused.

“I’m not--”

“You are. You and Jim are just the same with your secret injuries, what is that about?”

“It’s not a _secret injury_. You’re not even a medical professional, can you just--”

“How did this even happen? You haven’t been on a mission lately -- or have you? Are your ribs just bruised, or…?”

“They’re not even _bruised_ , Uhura, it’s just a minor … _thing_.”

Uhura hummed and continued to give him that narrowed-eyed look that reminded Leonard oh-so-very-much of his own mother.

“Was it Jim?” she asked. “Have the two of you been ... fighting?”

“No, Christ, no. He didn’t _hit_ me.”

“But it _was_ Jim.”

“It wasn’t … intentional.”

Uhura looked at him with her arms crossed, apparently processing. Leonard wondered if she was pausing to try to approach this from an angle that didn’t sound judgmental. “He caused this -- non-injury -- _unintentionally._ ”

Leonard gritted his teeth. “You could technically say that,” he ceded at last. “Can I get back to work now?”

“Is that why you’re keeping it a secret?”

“I’m not -- keeping it a secret!”

“Oh, okay. So I can just go and tell Jim that you’re--”

Uhura had moved to leave the room, and Leonard had lept forward to pull her back with a hand on her shoulder.

“Please don’t,” he asked solemnly.

“Leo,” she’d said, matching his sincerity. “What is this about?”

“Can’t you just leave it alone?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head and staring him down.

Leonard met her gaze and seethed nervously in silence for a solid minute. “You can’t tell Jim.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious.”

“Okay!”

Leonard tightened his lips and tried not to quail under her gaze. “Do you know,” he began slowly, “when you are … up against … your partner … in bed … at night … not like, sexual, but, you know … affectionate?”

“Snuggling,” she provided helpfully.

“And how sometimes, depending on … what you’re doing ... their arm is sometimes … under your … torso ... like this--” he patted his good side and looked sheepish.

Uhura’s grin was suddenly obvious on her face. “Uh-huh…”

He stared at her, defeated and furious at once, as though begging her silently to contain herself. “And you know … how Jim likes to touch everything at all times.”

Uhura was pursing her lips, and Leonard realized with extreme dismay that this was an effort to withhold her laughter. “Leonard,” she began slowly. “Is this … a cuddling injury?”

Leonard felt his ears burning. “It’s _not,_ ” he reminded her, “an injury.”

Uhura stared at him another second before excusing herself out into the corridor. A long, piercing scream of laughter followed, floating into sickbay and toward Leonard as though taunting _him_ , specifically, for being such a colossal wimp. Leonard hid his face in his hands, slumped back against the nearest biobed, and waited for her to return.

“All right,” she said primly, once again standing before him. “Thank you for telling me. I know that must have been difficult for you.”

“Oh, do you now?” he drawled ferociously.

“So can you--” she broke off and set a fist against her lips as though to beat the laughter back; Leonard rolled his eyes. “Can you help me understand how this happens? You are facing Jim--”

“No,” Leonard muttered, looking miserable. “Away.”

Uhura took a moment to compose herself. “You are … the small spoon, then.”

Leonard’s ears blazed anew. “I would not call it that.”

Uhura blinked furiously. “No, of course not.”

“Jim -- likes -- to -- snuggle,” he said, with extreme difficulty (unaided by Uhura’s expression of extreme joy at hearing Leonard say the word ‘snuggle’), “and I like to go the hell to _sleep_ , so I … let him … latch on,” he waves an angry hand, “or whatever it is he wants to do. And I just. Go to sleep. Passively. At this time.”

“All right,” Uhura said, looking as though every one of her wildest dreams had come true. “So you are … facing away.” She bestowed him with a gaze that indicated to Leonard that she thought she was being extremely charitable by how she was phrasing this. “And he is ‘latched on’ to your back, with his arm underneath your ribs. And it just… lies there? Unattended? While you go to sleep?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake. I hold his fucking hand, Uhura, is that what you want to hear?”

Uhura looked suddenly as though she had just been given a very thoughtful gift. She pressed a hand to her chest and leaned lovingly forward toward Leonard, who made an embarrassed sound and placed his head back into his own hands. “I hate this,” he muttered.

“I know you do,” she placated gently, patting his head with care. “You like to snuggle too, don’t you, Leo.”

“I plead the goddamned fifth.” Leonard did not re-emerge from his home in his palms.

“And that’s why you don’t want to tell him that his arm is putting pressure on your ribs, because then he might stop snuggling you, and that would make you sad.”

Leonard looked up at last and bestowed wide eyes upon Uhura. “It’s -- his arms are _large_ , and the bed, there’s no give...”

“Ohhh,” she said, and took his head into her arms in some sort of smothering embrace. “Leonard. You are such a softie.”

“Stop.”

“You _love_ him.”

“Stoppp.”

“You want him to snuggle you all night.”

Leonard made a strangled sobbing sound.

“Shhhh.” She patted his head and rocked gently. “Leo, you have to talk to him about this.”

“Uh, no?!” Leonard re-emerged, hair somewhat tousled from her grasp. “I will never do that.”

“Whether it’s coming from a place of love or not, what he is doing is causing you pain.”

“No it’s not.”

Uhura jabbed him in the ribs and he hissed, moving his hand to protect them. “Ow! What the hell kind of point are you trying to make here?”

“That can’t be pleasant for you.”

“It’s fine!!”

“I get your concern, Leo. All this snuggling is important to you.”

“Please stop using that word,” he muttered; Uhura appeared not to hear.

“But all it means is that you need to adjust. Snuggle a different way. Have you tried being the _big_ spoon?”

Leonard stared at her. “Get out of my sickbay.”

Uhura grinned widely and backed slowly away from him. “You can’t afford to have a secret injury in this job, Leonard. You’d kill Jim if it was him. That means you need to fix it, okay? If you don’t he’ll find out eventually, and that’s not gonna be better. Find a way. I believe in you.”

And then Leonard was left alone with his stupid snuggling injury to feel mortified in peace.

  
  
  


But Uhura, as it turned out -- horrifically -- was right.

Jim appeared suddenly over his shoulder two nights later. “Did you just wince?” he asked.

“No.”

The arm disappeared from beneath Leonard’s ribs, and he made a mental note to learn to lie better as he turned over onto his back. “What happened?” Jim continued, pulling himself up to a sitting position. “Did Chapel finally lose it and club you in the chest with a biobed?”

“It’s nothing.”

Jim reached over Leonard’s torso and jabbed him in the ribs.

“Ow! Christ! Why does everyone think that’s a good idea?”

“Everyone? Who’s everyone?”

“Uhura’s already had a stern talking-to with me about this, but _seriously_ , it’s nothing. Leave it alone, would you? Let’s go to sleep.” Leonard turned his back to Jim again and raised his arm as though to invite Jim to ‘latch on’ as usual.

“Can’t go to sleep like that if you’re in pain, Bones. Seriously, what happened?”

Leonard collapsed into himself and gave a groan crossed with a laugh. Finally, he sat up and looked Jim dead in the eye. “Jim,” he began, “you’re too hard.”

Jim opened his mouth and then closed it, looking bewildered. “I have _never_ heard that before, Bones, least of all from you. Are you feeling okay?”

“Your arm. Is too muscular. You’re built like a fucking man of iron. I lie down on it and my mortal ribs displace themselves to make room for your adamantine structure.”

Jim’s jaw dropped. “Oh, my god, Bones… Me _cuddling you_ caused your _ribs_ to bruise?”

“They’re not bruised,” he muttered.

“You are,” a grin spread slowly across Jim’s face, “ _such_ a Southern belle!”

“Yeah, okay, I’m leaving now.”

Jim caught Leonard round the middle and threw him back down onto the bed, jumping excitedly to his hands and knees. “Oh, no! You must stay and endure the force of my passions!”

“Urgh,” Leonard said as Jim straddled his hips and began planting kisses over his face and neck.

“Holy shit, Bones. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe you got hurt by my _arm_. I mean, I get it, I’m fit, but I didn’t think I was actually _dangerously_ fit. Why didn’t you tell me you were hurting?”

“I didn’t want to endure this, for one thing,” he grumbled.

“You love it. Look, I know I like to say I _need_ to touch as much of you as possible, blah blah, but I thought you knew I was just being a shit when I said that.”

“Oh, believe me, I know you’re a shit.”

“So why not say something? That can’t be comfortable. How long has it been like that?”

“Not long,” Leonard muttered, looking away. Jim’s enthusiasm ebbed slowly off his face as the seconds passed.

“Huh. Wow. I’m sorry, Bones.” Seriousness crept in where the joy had just been. “I’m really sorry. I should have noticed something was off.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Leonard said quickly. “You couldn’t have guessed.”

“You just … slept on it? Without telling me I was hurting you? Why?” Jim’s hand moved over Leonard’s ribs and pressed gently, caringly, as he sat down on top of Leonard’s legs. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Leonard’s hands went to cover his eyes and Jim stopped, waited, until he re-emerged. “Because, Jim, even if it bothered me a little, I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep without you there.”

Jim stared in silence for a moment. “You … _like_ the cuddling?”

“Of course I like it, you lunatic. You think I’m in your bed night after night hating the fact that you’re pasted behind me?”

“I … thought you _tolerated_ it.”

“Well, that too.”

“But you also _like_ it.”

“Yes.”

Jim paused again. “It … helps you … sleep?”

Sitting above Leonard like that, Jim looked so stunned and bewildered that Leonard took Jim’s hands into his own and squeezed them gently. “I like you in general, does that surprise you?”

“I … in a way, kind of, yeah.”

“I don’t waste my time with people I don’t like. I sure as shit don’t provide medical services to people I don’t like, and it’s been a long damn time since I’ve gone to bed with anyone I didn’t like either. But you’re a goddamned wild card, Jim, and until we got on this ship I didn’t really know a damn thing about where you went or what you were up to until you showed up at my door and asked for my help.

“And I adjusted to that all right. You can only play the hand you’re dealt. But I caught the worrying gene from my mother or something, because it wasn’t easy watching you shove off on your own to do god knows what. Half the time it’s why I came with you on your insane shenanigans; I felt better when I could see you. Then when we got together I figured out it was much easier to tell you were all right in the middle of the night when your arm was shoved under my ribs and your breath was bouncing off my back. So I got accustomed, and then I got attached.” Leonard squeezed at Jim’s hands again and noticed Jim had the decency not to be laughing at him. “When I don’t feel you there, I just don’t sleep as well. Ribs or not, it’s … better if you stay.”

Jim blinked at him once, then twice. “You _like_ me,” he said eventually.

“Yyyyes.”

“You _looooove_ me.”

“Is everyone on this ship eight years old? Yes. What do you want?”

“You _love_ it when we _cuddle_.”

“Oh, brother.”

“You want my _hard body against you_ ‘cause it helps you _sleep better_.”

“I’m just gonna lie here, you feel free to keep issuing a beating. I’ll take it. Already did my ribs.”

Jim grinned and flopped down beside Bones unceremoniously. “So when you say it’s better if I _stay_ ,” he began, “what do you _mean_ by that exactly?”

“I mean it’s not worth accommodating my slovenly ribcage situation, so stop worrying about it.”

“Right, but can you describe exactly what it is you want me to do?”

“The thing you always do.”

“What’s that? I suddenly forget.”

“Ugh.”

“You want me to SPOON you, Bones?”

“Not anymore. _Now_ I want you to place yourself into the trash chute and eject yourself directly into space.”

“You want me to hold you gently in my arms as you drift off into the land of nod and make you feel safe and wanted?”

“Just directly into space.”

“You want me to--”

Leonard had the good foresight to place his hand over Jim’s mouth before he had a chance to finish the sentence, but then Jim, predictably, licked his hand, and Leonard cleaned it off on Jim’s face, and Jim stared at Leonard fondly enough to evoke a similar expression on his own face.

“Here,” Jim said, and laid down beside Bones. “Put your arm there and then face me -- there.” Jim’s face was buried in Leonard’s neck, his leg settled between Leonard’s, arm snaking behind his shoulder. “You got my mouth on you and everything. No ribbing required.”

“Yeah, but your breath stinks from here.”

Jim moved away. “Oh, now you’re gonna be difficult about this?”

“No,” Leonard said, smiling as he redirected Jim’s face back toward him with one large, caressing hand. “This is good.”

And so they lay for several minutes in quiet, extremely comfortable satisfaction.

“So Uhura knows everything about this situation?” Jim asked eventually, cracking one eye open against Leonard’s chest.

“Yeah.”

“That’s … dangerous.”

“Yeah,” Leonard agreed.

“We should ask Spock how they cuddle.”

“Somehow I don’t see that going great.”

“Yeah, but maybe they have tips. Cuddling tips. We can all have dinner and discuss strategies together, you know, just the Captain, XO, CMO, and Communications Officer, having a nice talk about snuggles. Captain’s log, stardate 2271.096: tonight the senior officers aboard the USS Enterprise held a critical meeting about such issues pertinent to our exploratory mission as--”

“Ugh,” Leonard said, and made his best attempt at smothering Jim between his pecks. “And that’s enough out of you.”


End file.
